(no subject)

Yesterday I learned from my dad that the song "Bye, bye miss American Pie" was really about the death of Richie Valens, J.P. Richardson, and Buddie Holly, and the rise of the Rolling Stones among others. Don McLean thought that this was the death of "real music": he wrote "As I watched him on the stage, my hands were clenched in fists of rage" about Mick Jagger singing "Sympathy for the Devil."

How does my dad know so much stuff? :~) A while ago I was driving through Draper with my mom, and she was pointing out various buildings that were there when she and my dad had an organic farm down there in the seventies. It's so great to have parents who are liberal and accepting, and who I can relate to - from whom it's not necessary to hide things. In fact, they've been much wilder than I'll probably ever be. I take it for granted until I hear accounts from friends about their parents not allowing them to stay with their sweethearts, or berating them (still!) for partying or intoxication or other aspects of their lifestyle. Is it just a characteristic of conservative Utah, or am I lucky?

SUVs

Though I can be fairly opinionated about what is appropriate fuel efficiency and emissions for automobiles, I don't usually take it out on their owners, since

1. perhaps they need such a grossly over-sized vehicle (such as my old landlord, who was a tree specialist and needed a large truck for his business, or the over-sized families in Utah, which can only be accommodated in over-sized "Mormon Assault Vehicles"), and
2. I've seen many SUV owners - and people in general - get irrationally defensive when someone berates them personally for a choice they've made. Ad hominem and knee-jerk reactions don't solve anything.

That said, I'm just as frustrated as many others at the plethora of SUVs on the road, for safety, environmental, and economic reasons. I was happy with the anti-SUV commercial aired a while ago, and amused at anti-SUV movements such as FUH2 and this Adbusters CultureJam, even though they sparked quite a bit of hate mail. I was also amused by Jon Stewart's comment about it all: "... The answer is the hybrid gas-electric car, which only supports terrorists when going uphill." (And speaking of Jon Stewart, while I was looking around the web I found this amusing Bush vs. Bush debate.)

Addendum 1/5/04: Fueleconomy.gov has a fuel economy calculator that's right on with mileage for my 1987 Nissan Sentra. Very awesome!